General Electric, down 6.3 percent, suffered its biggest one-day percentage decline in more than six years after a host of brokerages cut their price targets on the stock, citing higher chances of a dividend cut at the industrial conglomerate.
After holding near the unchanged mark for most of the session, losses accelerated late in the session on downturn in technology, off 0.40 percent.
Last week, the Dow and S&P managed to close at a record high all five days, after a strong start to third-quarter earnings and on hopes President Donald Trump's tax plans move forward after the Senate's approval of a budget resolution on Friday.
"On the one hand, the market is very extended, overbought, on the other hand so far earnings have come through," said Andrew Slimmon, portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management in Chicago.
"The question becomes what happens if tax reform doesn’t happen in 2017, does the market sell off into the year-end?"
Investors are also waiting for news on the next Federal Reserve chief. Trump told reporters on Monday he is "very, very close" to making his decision on who should chair the Fed.
Of the 97 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, 73.2 percent have topped expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data, versus the 72-percent average for the past four quarters.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 54.25 points, or 0.23 percent, to 23,274.38, the S&P 500 lost 10.19 points, or 0.40 percent, to 2,565.02 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 42.23 points, or 0.64 percent, to 6,586.83.
Industrials, were off 0.8 percent as one of the biggest drags to the S&P of the 11 major sectors. Aside from GE, the group was also pulled lower by a 10.4-percent tumble in Arconic after the specialty metals maker missed profit estimates and announced a new chief executive.
The energy index stumbled 0.59 percent, driven by losses in Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Halliburton, which reported results on Monday.
Hasbro plunged 8.6 percent after the toymaker's forecast for the holiday season fell below estimates as Toys'R'Us bankruptcy began to hurt its operations. Shares of peer Mattel fell 3.2 percent.
The S&P 500 posted 91 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 104 new highs and 41 new lows.
About 5.84 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, compared with the 5.83 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. — Reuters
